The End of the Line
by Rico Perrien
Summary: After the Battle at the Department of Mysteries, Harry and his friends are fed up, and decide that they are 'mad as hell and not going to take it any more'.


**The End of the Line**

**Rating**: M (to be safe)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any part of the Potterverse or any of the many products associated with it. These are all owned by JKR and her associates, not me. My only reward is working out puzzles and writing about them for my own enjoyment, and hopefully that of others. She built the sandbox and owns it, I'm just sitting there building sandcastles.

**Author's Notes:** One-shot AU. No Ships. Why don't the Ministry six go after those connected with the Death Eaters who tried to kill them at the DoM, particularly those who have been harassing them for years? Children of the Death Eaters have been trying to hurt or kill Harry and his friends for years, and as part of the inquisitorial squad had been abusive to say the very least. One can speculate on just how abusive when essentially all restraints have been removed

**Warning:** Language and strong themes of retribution. If not dark Harry, certainly very grey.

June 20, 1996

The day had dawned with a clear sky, promising a beautiful day in the Scottish Highlands. Most people would expect to have a cheerful attitude on such a day, but this was not the case for the small group of five students and four adults clustered around a bed on the girls'/women's side of the infirmary at Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft. Their moods were uniformly sober, and a bit depressed.

Harry Potter and four of his friends sat in the infirmary at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry around the bed where Hermione Granger lay, heavily dosed with blood-replenishing and pain-killing potions. Her parents, Professor McGonagall and Madame Pomfrey, the school's medi-witch, completed those attending at her bedside. Hermione had been the most seriously injured of the group, at least physically, at what would come to be called the Battle of the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry of Magic, two days before, and she had just awoken from her potion-induced coma.

In the battle, Harry's godfather, Sirius Black, had been killed by passing through the Veil of Death. He had been the only family Harry had, and one of the few connections with his parents.

Harry specifically told his friends not to come to the Department of Mysteries with him, as he didn't want anyone to be hurt. But as he and they held their vigil beside their friend's bed, he remained very grateful for them being there with him. Their loyalty touched him deeply. Harry had it out with Dumbledore, throwing a tantrum, destroying many of his fancy instruments in the process, yelling he has come to the end of the line with the Headmaster and his entire plan.

Hermione had received emergency surgical treatment at St Mungo's in London, but was then transferred back to Hogwarts at her own request, so that she could resume studying for her O.W.L. exams as soon as she was able. The others who had fought beside her had been returned to Hogwarts and the efficient and expert care of Madame Poppy Pomfrey. However, to conserve her energy to help heal the large incision needed to start the repair of her injuries, she was put into a deep sleep for a day while the healer's magic did its work.

When the school's medi-witch had seen the injuries of the five who showed up late in the evening of the 18th, she waved her wand at Neville and Ginny in almost a haphazard manner, as their injuries (Neville's broken nose and Ginny's broken ankle and concussion) were no worse that the quidditch injuries which she had repaired hundreds of time before. Luna Lovegood was also checked for a concussion and bruising, while Harry was treated for some minor scarring and some more serious magical exhaustion. However, she had requested assistance from some mind-healers from St Mungo's to check on Ron Weasley's exposure to the brain-creatures. Four of the students were released early the next morning, but Miss Granger would be very likely to miss the solstice ceremonies scheduled for two days later but would be released soon after. Ron Weasley remained under observation, as he still showed signs of serious mental damage, the primary symptom being his demand for salads and a distaste for pastries.

Hermione's parents had been summoned to the school, and had been accompanied by Hermione's Head of House, Professor McGonagall, to get them through the muggle-repelling wards which protected the castle. They had arrived the previous afternoon, having had to rearrange schedules at their dental practice, and they had sat by their daughter's bedside throughout the night in case she awoke.

After bringing Hermione's parents to Hogwarts and leading them to the infirmary, McGonagall had returned to her duties, but had come back in the very early morning to sit with the group keeping vigil over her favourite student.

As Hermione opened her eyes, Poppy Pomfrey gestured to the students to give her some privacy with the Grangers. Hermione weakly shook her head, and said quietly "They were there when I was hurt, and saved me from further harm. They should hear whatever you have to say, too."

Poppy looked at the young woman and said, "I think that you and your parents need to hear it first, and then you can decide how much to share."

The faces of Elly and Gil Granger paled at this statement. It sounded like the news was bad.

Hermione shook her head again. "I will tell them everything anyway, so you might as well save time."

Poppy looked at the elder Grangers, who nodded, then she sighed and nodded. "As you wish. To start with, your injuries were caused by a dark curse. Flesh that is hit with such a curse will not heal, so we have had to remove any tissue that the curse touched, and a bit extra to make sure it was thoroughly cleaned out - dead tissue cannot be regenerated, even with magic. This way, you should heal properly as all the remaining surrounding tissues were healthy. You will have a scar across your abdomen for the rest of your life, but unless you prefer to wear bikinis, it should not be any major problem."

"However, the damaged tissue included part of your liver, one of your ovaries, and your uterus. The other ovary was clean, so you will not need hormone replacements to prevent premature menopause, and we may be able to regenerate the second ovary from the first. Fortunately, the liver is one of the organs which will regenerate on its own. You will need to eat foods rich in iron for some months to help in your healing. I suspect you will be eating a lot of liver and spinach salads for a while".

The mood lightened briefly, as they heard Ron's voice "Spinach salad! Brilliant! Me too!" The dark mood quickly descended again.

Mrs. Granger and Hermione looked shocked. The girl looked at Madame Pomfrey, and asked "My womb is gone? You are sure?" as she broke into tears.

The medi-witch nodded sadly.

Just then a familiar voice was heard in the infirmary.

"I see the mud-blood got what was coming to her!"

The group turned to see Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson standing a few metres away with a satisfied smirk on their faces. The smirk disappeared as they found they were looking at five wands pointing at their faces, held in front of the faces of five very irate students. Draco had to squint to see the tip of Harry's wand, as it was only an inch away from the bridge of his nose – later he realized that he had not even seen Harry move clear across the room to stand a metre away from him with his wand drawn.

Ginny Weasley expressed their universal opinion when she said, "Malfoy, you're not wanted. Why don't you do everybody a favour and piss off?"

Draco's face turned red. He shouted, "Shut up, you blood-traitor." You'll get yours!"

Harry Potter spoke is a quiet but extremely menacing voice. "Draco, you have been a pain in my arse since the moment I met you. Just give me a little more excuse. Please."

Draco smirked and said "Potter, you still don't know who you're talking. You're nothing!" As always, Draco became furious when people did not give him the 'respect' he was raised to believe was his birthright.

Harry smiled a nasty smile at the Slytherin poppinjay, and said "Nothing? I am the one who duelled with your father two nights ago. I duelled with your Lord Voldemort, who fled. The six of us stood against twelve of your Death Eaters and we all are still here! Your Lord Voldemort fled! He fled! You are the one who doesn't realize who he is talking to!"

Professor McGonagall attempted to stop the confrontation before it devolved into a pitched (and likely very bloody) battle, and ordered, "Potter, and you others. Lower your wands! Now!"

As Harry and the others began to lower their wands, Draco and Pansy started to whip out their own wands. Pansy felt the point of a wand behind her ear, and heard Ginny Weasley's voice saying "Draw your wand any further, bitch, and Madame Pomfrey will be scraping what passes for your brain off the walls." Pansy realized that, just as Draco had not seen Harry Potter move across the room, she had not even seen the red-head witch move to stand behind her right ear.

As the ever-vigilant Poppy Pomfrey shouted "Accio wands!", Draco and Pansy's wands flew into Pomfrey's outstretched hand. She smiled with a disgusted and nasty look on her face, and said "Accio _other_ wands." An additional wand flew out from Draco's sleeve and another from his pant leg. Pansy's skirt flew up high as two wands flew out from her thigh holsters into Poppy's hands. The two were shocked that none of the wands of the other students had followed their own.

Luna smiled at the Slytherin girl and said, "Pretty knickers, Pansy. However, I am surprised. Given what Draco has been saying about you to absolutely everyone, I would not have expected that you would even be wearing any."

Pansy looked at Draco, with her face turning a bright red, half in embarrassment and half in fury.

Poppy looked at the 'extra' wands. She smiled at Minerva McGonagall, and said, "Ah. Four unregistered wands. Quite illegal and no tracking charms on them either. I think we will need to have the aurors check for their recent spells." Turning her face towards the two Slytherins, she said, "I will give your 'official' wands to your head of house, who may return them to you, or not, as he deems fit. If these other wands show what I think they will show, you can expect some additional visitors, and you may find you have a change in accommodations in the very near future. Now get out, you two!" It was obvious to all present that she did not mean the two were just going to be going home for the summer.

The two looked at the group, and Draco began yelling his usual threat, "Wait until my father…", when Harry interrupted him, shaking his head sadly and saying "Draco, your father is in prison. He was caught in his full Death Eater robes leading the attack at the Ministry. The aurors saw him and even Fudge saw him. He's never going to be able to claim he was acting under the Imperius this time, and he is never going to be able to bribe his way out again. In fact, I heard that the Ministry is talking to the Goblins about confiscating your entire family fortune. You're totally pathetic. Merlin, even your threats are pathetic. Go away."

Infuriated at this disrespect, Malfoy screamed out, "You're dead! All of you are dead!", to which Pansy added, "And you're never going to see it coming. Blood traitors and mud-bloods, every one of you."

Harry Potter looked very grim as he sharply raised his own wand at the two, who fled the infirmary as if all the dementors of Azkaban were after them.

At the sound of someone crying, Harry turned to see Elly Granger almost crushing her daughter's hand, and through her tears, murmuring "This has to stop. This has got to stop."

Harry nodded as he looked at the retreating Slytherins. He said "This will stop. I have had it with these idiots. I have reached the end of the line with these pure-blood bullies." He had realized that all the students on the Inquisition Squad were children of Death Eaters, most of whom he had identified from the resurrection event and who got away with it purely due to Ministry collusion, and he was just not going to take their nonsense anymore.

Gil Granger nodded, and said "Harry, from what Hermione has told us, you may be the only person who is able to stop this abuse. If you can't, then we are going to take Hermione as far away from your wizarding world as we can. This is intolerable, and it's criminal that it has been going on at this school. Elly and I are not going to put up with it any more." Minerva blanched at this unfortunately very accurate assessment.

Ginny and Luna looked at each other. Luna turned to Harry, and said "Harry Potter, you may be the one to stop them, but you will not do it alone. We are all in this battle. After all, Draco just showed what a complete hypocrisy the whole pure-blood agenda is."

Neville nodded. "She's right, you know, Harry. Luna and I are both pure-bloods, as are Ron and Ginny. You can't be a traitor to your own blood, only to their plan to keep so-called pure-bloods in total control. It's all about power, not blood."

From her bed, Hermione spoke up weakly. "They're right, Harry. It's all about the power. But even if you stop the ones who are shouting it at the top of their lungs, there are a lot who feel that way too. They also have to be persuaded to change."

Luna got a rather vicious smile on her face. "You know, Pansy's last comment has got me thinking. About not seeing it coming. Harry, I have heard that you have been sneaking into the Ravenclaw girls' showers, completely unseen, but I suspect that rumour is just some of my roommates' fantasies. Sometimes they say things that are quite unbelievable."

From beside Hermione's bed, Gil Granger started to chuckle at the young witch's comment, having heard about her from his daughter, and the idea that Harry could somehow disappear from view. His wife and daughter smiled gently as well. One of Gil's favourite skits on the telly was an old one about 'how not to be seen'.

Professor McGonagall smiled at Harry. "Mr. Potter, am I to understand from Ms. Lovegood that you have a way to not be seen. Perhaps a legacy from a relative, that you could use to enter the common rooms of other Houses and spy on other students, perhaps even some of our young ladies, but some of whom might hold to anti-social tendencies. If I knew of you casting a spell like that, I would surely have to stop you using it, for your own safety."

Harry smiled back at his Head, having noticed that she had only talked about restricting spells, and had not mentioned confiscating his cloak. He said, "I don't know of any spells that could do that. I would tell you if I did." The others also noted that he did not say anything about 'things'.

Minerva nodded. "Good, I think we understand each other." And with that, she left the room.

Poppy Pomfrey looked at Harry, and said, "I believe that you should know some things which have been going on. This might influence your future actions."

"Since you lot ran Dolores Umbridge out of the school, sadly, certain facts have come to my attention. For one thing, her Inquisitorial Squad had been running amuck, and have continued to do so. It seems they don't like losing their power and privilege to abuse other students, and want to do as much damage as they can before they are eventually and finally stopped. A couple of Slytherin girls who had avoided being part of their clique have been beaten up. Before that, a number of students, girls and boys, have been seriously abused, and had complained to Umbridge – she claimed they were lying, and more than one now carries the same scar Harry has on his left hand. When I complained to Umbridge about this, my job, my person, and my life itself were threatened."

"One girl in their own house was raped repeatedly by the boys in the Squad, apparently for objecting to Slytherin House being effectively held hostage by the Inquisitorial Squad. Of course, I cannot tell you who she is, but I presume you can narrow down the possibilities fairly easily. Anyway, she told me that, if anyone needed it to get into the Slytherin dormitory to, as she put it, 'clean out the filth that lurks there', the password is 'Anaconda'."

"By the way, the password to get into Hufflepuff is 'Semper Fidelis'."

Luna looked at the matron. "Weren't you a Hufflepuff? Isn't this rather disloyal to your House?"

Poppy looked into Luna's eyes. "I was, and I am, a Hufflepuff. But as a graduate of Hogwarts and the matron of this infirmary, my loyalty is to all students. All of the students. These pure-bloodists dishonour us all."

Luna nodded, and thanked the medi-witch for her information, and her contribution. Madame Pomfrey headed back to her office, possibly so she could not hear plans which she would have to officially object to. As she left, she set the four confiscated, and untrackable, wands down on a table by one of the beds.

Luna then turned to Harry, and said "I can save us some time. I have been watching my dorm-mates, and can provide you with names. As far as I know, they haven't done anything physically yet, but I think it would be good to let them know that their attitudes are not very nice, and that we think that they should be re-examined." Turning to the rest of the group, she added "I suggest we write some notes which can be given to them, while Harry deals with those who have committed actual criminal acts."

Harry looked at Luna, and said "I am surprised, Luna. You were very forgiving when people stole your things."

Luna smiled a nasty smile. "Harry Potter, those were _things_. Things are only things. They are not important. We are talking about people. People are very important. My friends, the people I love, are very important to me. In this, I am very unforgiving."

"Harry, your comment about being at the end of the line has got me thinking. I am the last of my family line, as are you and Neville. Hermione is both the first and last (so far) of her wizarding line, with no offence meant to her parents who are lovely people. Draco's threats would wipe out three of the oldest wizarding Houses, if he could pull it off. It would be end of the line for us."

"Have you noticed how many of the so-called pure-bloods are only children, too? All of the Inquisitorial Squad are from that sort of pure-blood families. They are all the family has left. Their families are getting so in-bred that they are almost going extinct from their own actions." She got a very wicked smile on her face. "I think we should assist them in this pursuit."

Harry smiled back at Luna. He was thinking of a comment Dudley had made after a boxing lesson, about 'taking the fight to his man'. "Sound like an interesting idea, Luna. If you all will excuse me, I have some things to attend to." With this, he turned to Hermione's bed, kissed his stricken friend on the forehead, and left the hospital wing.

Luna noticed that there were now only three extra wands on the bedside table.

Luna turned to Hermione, and knelt down beside the bed. She took her friend's hands in hers, and said, "Now, Hermione, how many children do you want to have? I need to know this so I can schedule things properly. I need to leave time for my own kids, too."

Mrs. Granger looked at the Ravenclaw like she was out of her mind, which was a fairly common perception of the young blonde witch, while her daughter broke into tears. Hermione cried "Luna, didn't you understand? I can't have children now."

Luna smiled at her friend, and said "My dear Hermione. You have a healthy ovary, with all of its eggs intact. Your womb is gone, but mine is intact. It is yours to use, as you need and wish. I will carry your children for you."

Hermione looked at the blonde, echoing her mother's analysis that the short young woman had lost her mind. Perhaps her concussion was worse than they had suspected.

At Hermione's facial expression, Luna smile and continued, "Many high-born witches hire poor witches to carry their babies for them. Pregnancy makes their social events so awkward, and offends their vanity when they have depended so much on their comely appearance for most of their lives. Once the witch has conceived, a healer moves the embryo into the womb of the other witch. There are stories that sometimes, the high-born witch is left out of the process entirely, and her husband and the low-born witch screw like ferrets, but I am sure they are just stories, because that would confuse lines of succession which are oh so important to the high-born families."

Elly Granger said "That sound like the way some non-magicals use surrogates, or do what is called in-vitro fertilization, when the couple can't get pregnant the normal way."

Hermione looked at Luna, and through grateful tears asked "Why would you do this for me, Luna?"

Luna smiled at her supine friend. "Just a couple of reasons. First, you are one of the only people who never made fun of me, and as I told Harry, my friends are very important to me. More importantly, you saved my life."

Hermione shook her head. "I didn't. We fought with the Death Eaters, and you were knocked unconscious, while I got cut. I didn't save you."

Luna smiled "Yes, Hermione, you did! You were the one who organized the DA, at a serious risk to yourself from Umbitch. You were the one who convinced Harry Potter to teach us to fight. You were the one who came around in our practices encouraging me to do my best, and praising me when I cast my Patronus, my little bunny. And you were the one who tricked that vicious hag into the forest and got rid of her. Because of you, I knew how to fight, and that saved my life. Call it a life-debt, or call it a favour. Whatever I can do for you, I will."

June 21, 1996 (Summer Solstice)

The next morning in the Great Hall, there were numerous pieces of parchment sitting at the places some of the students had made their own by habit over the years. At nine of the places at the Slytherin table, there were small jars containing some grey-pinkish materials.

Luna Lovegood was sitting with Neville and the two Weasleys when Harry Potter walked up to his normal place with a tired but a satisfied smile.

Luna smiled at him and said, "Good morning, Harry Potter. Lovely aftershave you are wearing. Formaldehyde, yes?" She then turned to look around the room where students were sitting down, and some were demanding to know who had left the note at their seats. Many turned and looked towards the Gryffindor table where Luna and her friends were sitting.

One Ravenclaw boy stormed over the Luna and yelled out "Is this some kind of threat, Lovegood? Are you even more nuts than we thought?" Holding up his note, he read aloud "Your attitudes need some adjusting before they get you hurt.", and it is signed by 'The Ministry Six'. Who the hell are they? What the hell are you playing at?"

Luna raised her usually small voice so, although still somewhat quiet, it carrying throughout the hall. "Good morning, Marcus Philby. You are gravely mistaken. We are not _playing_ at anything. There will be no 'playing' any more. The petty insults and taunts will cease, and the petty thefts of people's belongings are finished, as of now!"

"The Ministry Six are six students who stood against twelve experienced adult Death Eaters, and held their own in a full out battle until reinforcements arrived. Even Lord Voldemort showed up for the party, but he fled! He! Ran! Away! The Ministry Six are a group of your fellow students who have declared war, because the war has been thrust upon them! In a war, people die. We are going to do our damnedest to make sure it is _them_ who do the dying. From this point, there will be no quarter, asked or given. We are tired of the abuse, the lies and the threats. It is now a fight to the death. Their deaths, if we can manage it. That's who the Ministry Six are. Satisfied? And what side are you going to be on?"

"You know, Marcus Philby, every time Hermione beats you on an exam, you strut around our common room complaining about how a mud-blood has no right to magic or even existence. You are in Ravenclaw too; we are supposed to be the smart kids here. If a muggle-born witch, from Gryffindor no less, can consistently best you on exams and tests, over and over and over, maybe it's time you recognised the whole pure-blood supremacy for the bullshit it is."

She then turned to Harry and said, "By the way Harry, I really appreciate that you treated the girls fairly, or at least in an equivalent way. And, given what was done to Hermione, so appropriate."

Harry smiled at the young witch, and said, "I'm sure I have no idea what you are talking about, Luna."

By this point, the former members of the Inquisitorial Squad had arrived at their places at the Slytherin table. All have very pale complexions, and the three girls were moving like they were in some discomfort. Mildred Bulstrode looked at the jar at her place, and her face went very pale as she fainted. Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe looked at their jars. Crabbe turned and threw up on Draco Malfoy, who was fortunate that his 'bodyguard' had not yet had his breakfast. Goyle put his head down on the table, weeping loudly.

Malfoy lifted the jar up to take a better look at it. As his face went completely white, he looked over at Harry Potter with an expression of total terror. Harry smiled back at him, raising his glass of juice in salute.

Ron Weasley, being still slightly out of it, turned to his sister, who was drinking her pumpkin juice with a look of cruel satisfaction. He asked, "Ginny, what's in Draco's jar?"

His sister calmly put down her glass, smiled at her brother and said "His testicles".

Luna glanced over at the Slytherin table, and turned back to her house-mate, who was still standing beside her with his mouth hanging open at the sudden change in perspective. Smiling at him, with her typical dreamy expression on her face she said, "Perhaps, we will need to change our house emblem from an eagle to a capon. What do you think?"

Harry looked over at the head table to see Professor Snape storming over towards the group.

"Oh look. It's Professor Snape, coming to blame me for everything that goes wrong in this castle. In his eyes, it could never be the pit of vipers that he is in charge of, who seem to be able to get away with anything. Including rape of some of the girls in his own house!"

At the gasp from the hall, Snape drew his wand, only to find he was looking at the business ends of some forty wands, backed up by the faces of the students with a variety of expressions ranging from disgust to sheer loathing. He heard a feminine voice to his left side, calling "Accio Wand!", and turned to see Ginny Weasley holding his wand.

With a look of total hatred, she snapped his wand, and threw the pieces at his feet.

Harry smiled at the amazed wizard, and said "Professor, I am curious. Did you hate everyone with green eyes, or from Gryffindor, or did you just have a special perversion for me? You have hated me and persecuting me ever since I stepped into the place. Or were you acting under orders? Was it from the Headmaster, to toughen me up, or from your previous Master? How about showing the world your left forearm, Professor?"

Snape snarled (he hardly ever spoke in any other way), "Potter, I don't think…" when Harry interrupted him.

"Yes, Professor, you are correct. You don't think. You don't think of what leadership you have given your house, so they believe they can assault and rape, and maybe even kill, with impunity. You don't think of how much you are despised by most of the people in this building. And you don't think that, because of the way you tried to rape my mind which let your Dark Lord into my head, I would hold you responsible for the murder of my godfather!"

Raising his voice, Harry announced to Snape and to the room full of students "Professor, I'll tell you some history. In fact, I'll tell everyone. Voldemort is a complete liar and a fraud! He and his followers claim to be promoting the highest and best of wizarding kind. So what does he do? Does he stand and fight? Not unless he has overwhelming odds, like the coward that he is. His name means 'Flies from Death' – he is terrified of it. Do his Death Eaters announce who they are proudly, like the knights of the middle ages wearing their coats of arms, or the samurai of old Japan who announced their names and linage before going into one-to-one combat to the death? No, they hide behind masks and attack unarmed and defenceless muggles, or people in crowds. They let him brand them like cattle!"

"Is he promoting the power and dignity of the Ancient Houses? No, he has no wife or children, but he puts all of his followers' children at risk. Does he provide wealth and power? No, he drains the coffers of his supporters and steals from those they murder! Does he reward them? No, he punishes them if they don't please him, and makes them come back begging for more."

"His only goal is personal power. His own personal power! And his own personal immortality! So if you are going to follow him, you and your families will be in thrall to him. For ever! This is their great leader?"

"You all make me sick. And as Luna so eloquently put it, we are not going to put up with this any longer."

Snape stared at Harry, as if seeing him clearly for the first time. "Potter, are you trying to threaten me?"

Harry shook his head, and in a soft cold voice, said, "No, Professor. Not at all."

His voice hardened. "It's not a threat. It! Is! A! Promise!"

At this moment, a stern voice was heard behind Snape. Minerva McGonagall asked, "Professor Snape, what business have you with Potter this morning? It is my duty to discipline students in my house if they require it, just as it is your duty to discipline yours!" With this statement, it was obvious to everyone in the Great Hall that McGonagall was pointing out his serious dereliction of his sworn duties.

With this she turned to Harry, and demanded "Potter. Your wand!"

Harry Potter handed his Head of House his wand. She drew her own wand and cast the spell to show any previous spells he may have cast. As the spell showed that Harry had cast no spells with his wand within the previous twenty four hours besides some minor cleaning of his robes, she smiled at him, returned his wand, and turning to Snape, announced, "I don't know what you think Potter may be guilty of, Professor, but his wand clearly shows no malicious spells. Professor, I will not tolerate any further harassment of my house!" With that she returned to the head table, leaving Snape fuming in from of the students. Some started to giggle, at which Snape stormed from the room.

With this, McGonagall demonstrated in no uncertain terms that she was firmly in rebellion against the travesty that Hogwarts had become under Delores Umbridge's reign of terror, and all that that entailed.

Hermione had once told Harry that the Ancient families didn't think like regular people. They did not think in terms of months or even years, but in terms of generations.

Once word of the change in climate at Hogwarts spread through the wizarding world, things changed. Those Ministry hacks, who had gleefully accepted 'presents' and 'additional funding', found their lavish lifestyles deteriorating and their vault accounts shrinking as the bribes dried up. Some very-highly placed officials had their expensive robes disappear when they were in the presence of the Aurors, who seemed a little more keen on prosecuting those wearing the Mark.

Voldemort found that his recruiting seemed only to attract the disenchanted and rabble, and the lack of rich high-borns in the new candidates put serious stress on his funding. His raids turned to looting and foraging, rather than terrorising, as his new followers seemed more interested in eating than risking their lives against more-and-more well defended targets. In his rage at this turn in fortune, Lord Voldemort lost more and more of his top lieutenants as he flung around Cruciatus and Killing curses all too freely.

Voldemort also found his own personal power slipping away. His followers had never realized that the Dark Mark was a leech charm, draining the magical power of his Death Eaters into his own reserves. This is why a moderately competent and knowledgeable dark wizard had been so over-powered, while his followers, sapped of their own magic, had been so unable to defeat or capture Harry Potter for so many years. As his most powerful Death Eaters were imprisoned in cells warded against magical transmissions in either direction, the Dark Lord could not draw on their power to supplement his own. His new recruits were, to a man, relatively weak magically, and so his accumulated power dropped more and more over time.

Finally, his end came by accident. In her madness, Bellatrix Lestrange forgot that her Lord's new body was a magical construct created at the ritual in the graveyard. After accepting, with pleasure, her Lord's ten minute Cruciatus curse, the sado-masochistic witch was allowed to punish an incompetent new recruit by turning him into a dog and then kicking him into unconsciousness. Then, wanting to see the bloody body of her victim, she pointed her wand towards the crumpled miscreant who lay between her and her Master. When she issued the 'Finite Incantatem' spell, she found that, in her own pain and with her muscles still spasming from the curses she had endured, she had aimed her wand poorly. Before her horrified eyes, Voldemort's body disintegrated, and through their Dark Marks, all his followers' magic was sucked out of them. Bellatrix, being almost the nearest Death eater to her Lord, was immediately drained of all her magic. The newly mugglized Death Eaters had a variety of reactions. Those who were still reasonably young found themselves surrounded by the excessively old bodies of those whose actual ages had exceeded the normal lifespan of the non-magical, and had instantly succumbed to the ravages of old age.

At the time of the Dark Lord's demise, Harry and his friends were at the Burrow, preparing for another year at Hogwarts. That summer, Harry had found out that he was now the Head of the Ancient and Noble House of Black and also the head of the Ancient House of Potter. With the help of his friends, both the pure-bloods of old families and his favourite obsessive bookworm, he was discovering both his new authorities and his obligations.

With no prior warning, Harry's scar exploded. As Harry fell screaming in pain, a dark mist left his head, screaming as it and its owner died. His friends helped him to his feet and cleaned the blood off his face, while Harry Potter reached out with his mind for the feeling of Voldemort's presence. There was none, and never would be again.

Harry looked up at his friends, who were wondering what had happened, and whether they should call for a Healer. With a face which was still recovering from the pain, Harry smiled.

In a shaky voice, he said "I think he's gone. He's gone! It's the end of the line!"

With this, his three favorite witches joined hands, and swept him into a joint hug. As Ginny, Luna and Hermione kissed him, Luna stated categorically, "No Harry. This is just the new beginning."

**Author's Note:** I need to acknowledge Itsme66 for his story 'The_Mandatory_ Marriage_Contract_Fic' (FFN story #5695032) which introduced me to the concept of the Dark Mark as a power leech, and the recognition that Voldemort's body was a magical construct. I hope I have used it credibly.


End file.
